Through Love and Bravery
by HOAnubisTS
Summary: The iPod Shuffle Challenge! Drabbles about love, fights, courage, bravery, grief, love, resentment, and did I mention love? Review please!


**Hey guys…. Darren Shan story? Yes. Totally. I had no idea what to write for my first Darren Shan fic, so I decided to improvise with the Shuffle Pod Challenge.**

**You take an iPod, put it on shuffle, and write a drabble for every song. This fanfic probably sucks, but I'm still putting it up. **

**Here we go! (Dead L E is sort of helping, and warning: contains awful lot of Taylor Swift songs)**

_Last Kiss – Taylor Swift_

"Arra, don't go," Larten whispered, almost inaudibly. He looked down at her, lying on the ground, dying slowly and painfully. Tears stung his eyes, but he choked them back. He wasn't going to cry. At least, not now.

"I'd ask you to kiss me," Arra breathed weakly. She smiled thinly, trying to conceal her pain. She coughed out blood into her hand, then looked at it, a horrified expression on her face. "But I'm not in the right state."

Larten grabbed her hand, almost instinctively. "You'll make it."

Her eyelids fluttered slightly as she fell into an eternal slumber. Larten kneeled next to her, and kissed her for the very last time.

2. _ET – Katy Perry_

"Vur?" she mutters sleepily, rubbing her eyes open. Managing to pry them open, she eyed the empty space next to her.

"Of course," she muttered, slipping on her robe. Strangely, Vur never slept in the nighttime. He was most alive then, and often left the house on Mondays and Saturdays. Alicia pretended that it didn't bother her, but she was worried that he was seeing other women. She shuffled into the kitchen, to find her soon-to-be husband sitting on the chair, glancing out of the window, the same troubled expression on his face.

"Good morning, honey," she sang, as she skipped over to him to give him a kiss. He faked a smile and tried to shoo away the anxiety.

"Good morning, Alicia," he murmured, absentmindedly. The same thoughts lingered in his head day and night. Alicia could see that he was always distressed by something, but she never mustered up the courage to ask him what it was.

He'd tell her someday. Maybe after their wedding day. He was only human, right?

_Safe and Sound – Taylor Swift_

"Finest selection of red wine," mused Vancha, as they strolled through the streets of Larten's home town. Darren gulped down tears. Just the mention of the color red would send him into devastation.

"You OK?" Vancha asked. Darren nodded lamely. Vancha sighed. He knew exactly what was troubling the boy.

"It's time to get over it, I know," Darren sighed. "But I can't."

"He's in paradise now," remarked Vancha, wrapping a comforting arm around the boy.

Darren wrinkled his nose. "Thanks, but no thanks, Vancha." Vancha snorted and pulled his arm away.

"He's away from the war, he's with Arra," Vancha added. A small smile tugged itself on Darren's lips.

"I guess you're right. No one can hurt him now."

They strolled farther down the boulevard, not uttering a word. The moon illuminated the night sky, shining phosphorescently.

_Jump then Fall – Taylor Swift (surprise surprise)_

"Where are all the others?" inquired Alice, looking around at the deserted clearing.

Vancha laughed unconvincingly. "I… dunno. They'll be here soon."

That was a lie, of course. He hadn't invited anyone else.

"Well, great," Alice smiled. "Do you have anything to eat?"

"Of course, I have meat –"

"-something edible, and preferably cooked," Alice cut him off giggling.

"Fine," Vancha scoffed. "If you want to be so picky."

"It's not pickiness!" she shrieked. "I'll get salmonella, I'm only human!" Vancha snorted with laughter as he roasted the meat over the fire with his bare hands.

"But you can't get salmonella," he said. "This is venison." Alice rolled her eyes.

"Well… this is awfully nice," she noted, observing her surroundings. "You did this all by yourself?"

Vancha nodded proudly as he perched the cooked venison in front of her precariously. Alice picked up a peace and bit into it gingerly.

"Wow, this is good!" she exclaimed, through a full mouth. "You're such a great friend."

Vancha faked a smile. "Just a friend?" he asked, crestfallen.

Alice's pupils dilated as she realized what his intentions were. The rest of the meal was spent in silence, as Vancha tried to hide his disappointment and Alice avoided eye contact with him.

_Dear John – Guess-Who-Sings-It_

The rope was tied around her throat tightly. The only thing stopping her from instant death was the wobbly stool she was standing on. She looked into the crowd of people, in hope to see him. He wasn't there.

She knew that if he was there, he would have saved her. Risked his own life.

Her entire life flashed in front of her eyes. She saw herself, young, innocent, about six of age, running away from home with tears in her eyes. She saw herself in front of Lady Evanna, her first lessons. Getting on the board of this ship. Helping him through his illness. Telling him how much she loved him as he lay unconscious.

She had to face it. Life was slowly seeping away from her, rising up to the clouds. Noise rushed back, and the the young sailor, who she had previously thought of as her friend, pulled the stool away.

As she fell, she murmured his name, for the very last time.

"Larten…."

_Teenage Dream – Katy Perry_

They sat there in silence, exchanging smiles, both deep in their thoughts.

_Did he just look at me?_

_She just looked at me._

Darren put his hand on hers, their fingers interwinding. He felt a tingle in his fingertips as they made contact. Was this what a crush felt like?

People had told him about this feeling. Your heart skipping a beat. Finding it harder to breathe. Smiling subconsciously. A permanent blush on your cheeks when that person was around.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked, breaking the fragile silence.

"Have you ever been in love?" he answered her question with another.

"Not before, no." She could hear her pulse hammering in her ears.

"What about now?" he inquired, leaning closer to her.

Instead of answering, she slammed her lips against his, snaking her arms around his neck.

_Sparks Fly – Tlayor Sifwt_

"Is this… even dancing?" asked Arra, dubiously.

"All the humans are doing it," Larten shrugged. "We have to do it, or else we'll look suspicious." Arra glanced to her right, to see a woman in an exquisite gown, her arm curled around her partner's neck . The man had his hands placed firmly on the woman's hips. Both of them were swinging to the right, then to the left, in the beat of the music.

"I believe this is how you do it," Arra said, guiding his hands to her hips. Larten, slightly uncomfortable, looked away. "And I do this." She put her arm around his neck.

"I cannot believe humans find this enjoyable," scoffed Larten. He looked back at Arra, who was nodding in agreement.

"Kissing contest!" the DJ screamed into the microphone, making Arra and Larten flinch. They looked around them dubiously, to find everyone following this man's intructions.

"Is he a human prince or something?" inquired Arra.

"I do not know, but we need to follow his instructions if he is."

_Innocent – Guess-who?-Yes-you-were-right.-It's-Taylor-Swift_

Eternal torment. Sounds horribly familiar, doesn't it? Especially to a certain fellow named Steve Leonard. He floated in the murky waters, reminiscing all of his mistakes. He wished he could sleep it off, but he had no eyelids to do so.

He remembered his best friend. Darren. He truly believed Darren had deserved being killed, he had betrayed him, after all. Right?

But now, he wasn't so sure. Did Crepsley really deserve to die? If he was still alive, the answer would have been given without missing a beat: Of course he did. He had called him evil. But what if he was right? At the end of the day, he had murdered savagely, almost ruthlessly.

There was no point in denying that he was, in fact, evil. Why else would he be stuck in these damned waters?

Suddenly, he remembered a line from a song he had once heard. "_It's OK, life is a tough crowd, thirty two is still growing up now, who you are is not what you did, you're still an innocent." _

_Who Am I Living For? – Katy Perry_

Darren stared down at the thrashing body through the flames. He wished that the movement meant life, but he knew that was a lie. It was just the water evaporating from the corpse.

"Mr. Crepsley," he called. Useless. He felt empty and immobile. He stood there, staring down at his mentor, who was slipping away rapidly. Never before had he hated Steve so much.

"Mr. Crepsley," he tried again, his voice trembling. Suddenly, outrage plagued his body. He was never as confident as he was now. He was going to pulverize that Steve, even if that meant certain death for himself.

_Love You Like A Love Song – Selena Gomez (don't ask why I have this on my iPod)_

"Beginner insomnia," she mumbled to herself. Why couldn't she sleep? She reached for her sleeping pills, but as soon as she tried, she collapsed on her bed. The power had been drained away from her.

Sighing, she turned to her side, eyes fixated on the window. The rain shattered itself on the window, as a majestic bolt of lightning struck down in the distance.

"It's been over thirteen years, he's not coming," she reassured herself, turning herself away from the window, closing her eyes. Still, she couldn't sleep.

"Good morning, class," she announced to the classroom of hyperactive children. She was exhausted, and had bags under her eyes.

"Good morning, Ms. Hemlock," the children said monotonously.

"So, class, today we're learning about MLA format. Who knows what a-"

"Debbie," the secretary of the school barged into the door. "There's a new student in your class."

The new student walked into the room. "Debbie!" he exclaimed.

"Darren…" she whispered.

**Sigh… I hate the Debbie stories, but sappy love songs suit her. Well…. did you guys like it? Review!**


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